The Navy's guided-missile destroyer Preble will leave San Diego Bay on Friday for service in the western Pacific. Its departure comes on the same day that a sister ship, the destroyer Decatur, is scheduled to return from deployment to the same region.

The timing of the Preble's deployment was uncertain until recent days because of sequestration -- mandatory cuts made in the federal budget that affect most agencies, including the Defense Department. The 509-foot ship was commissioned in 2002 and served deployments related to the Afghanistan War.

More recently, the Preble has performed test launches of newer generation Tomahawk cruise missiles off of San Nicholas Island. The exercise was part of a larger effort to improve naval weapons systems.

The Decatur spent part of its deployment in the Persian Gulf, helping to keep sea lanes open in a region that has one of the world's largest supplies of oil.

During an earlier deployment, the ship operated in support of U.S. forces in the Afghanistan War. And early this month, the Decatur was stationed near the Korean peninsula, where it helped to provide ballistic missile defense against North Korea.